King Dazbog, 2013

King Dazbog is a life-sized dinosaur puppet designed and built in 2013. This project was funded by the Boise Feast, Esthetic Evolution, Sensory Illumination, Trademark Sign Company, and the wonderful donors to my KickStarter. I was very fortunate to partner with James Sharp for the entire process, and this project was the result of the dedication and hard work of MANY talented individuals, including: Julie Bean, Celeste and Jesse Bolin, Cheyenne Jones, Redd Foxit, Chris Callor, Lydia Sakolsky-Basquill, Ashley Lorona, Dirk Anderson, Greg Briggs and many more.

We started sketching in december of 2012. It took a month of drawing, talking, and thinking before we settled on the rough design.

Then I made a 3D model in Sketch-Up so I could play with proportions, dimensions, and scale.

The next step was to create a digital mock-up which I could use for marketing and fundraising purposes.

The scale model really helped highlight some of the engineering problems we would have to solve....

About half of my funding was secured by applying for various grants, but I also ran a successful KickStarter campaign. Here's the video.

We produced a prototype neck and head in time for the Treefort Music Festival, and the Sensory Illumination party. This testing process was a crucial step...many of our initial material choices were not ideal, and testing showed us that.

Here's another view of the prototype. Photo Credit: MV Galleries

After the prototype testing (and several conversations with engineers) we revised our support structure design. Here we are testing the partially-constructed dinosaur.

This was King Dazbog's first festival, Esthetic Evolution.

This shot really shows off the scale of King Dazbog!

This photo was also taken at Esthetic Evolution. Photo Credit: Photo Moto Photography

This is a fun video that captured several of King Dazbog in action (both up close, and from a distance). Video credit: Larry Grimmett.

Next we took King Dazbog to MASSV Music Fest up in Sun Valley, Idaho. We debuted Dazbog's flippers, which were much better suited to a thick crowd of people, as opposed to an open field.

Another shot from MASSV Music Fest.

Here's a great little video of King Dazbog at MASSV. The laser lights were a huge hit! They projected beautifully on the dinosaur's skin.

A few weeks later, we hit up What The Festival.

Here's a fantastic shot from What The Festival, courtesy of Daniel Zetterstrom. I love the colors!

At the end of the summer we took King Dazbog (and the Giant Squid) to Burning Man.

King Dazbog met a friend out at Burning Man! Another life-sized dinosaur puppet! Check out the Icthyosaur Puppet Project!

We produced a large amount of King Dazbog related swag, both for the KickStarter donors, and to give out as gifts at the festivals.

Famed Boise artist Noble Hardesty created a beautiful logo for King Dazbog (which was printed into hundreds of stickers and given out freely everywhere King Dazbog went).